I will be serving the Lord in The Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission from June 2011-2013.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

ROLLER COASTER

Hello Family!

Well this week had its ups and downs, but that's the life of a Missionary. We started contacting a new area, and got failed out of our minds! For 2 days, we had 24 new visits set, and 2 of them were there for us to teach. Frustrating. Its really hard when people reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know how much it can bless them, and they just don't want to listen! I've decided that's the hardest part of the mission--seeing people reject their chance to receive the greatest blessing in this life. After all of this failure, we decided to go exploring, because we just found out that our area is WAY bigger than we previously thought. We went bushwhacking through the jungle and found this city that missionaries haven't touched (at least according to all the people we talked to). It was fun to contact an area that missionaries haven't contacted yet, but its also a lot of pressure, because whatever impression they get of us--will be their impression of the Church. I hope that we can be good representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ.

I can hardly remember the last week because my mind is just focused on yesterday and Saturday. On Saturday we had one of the funniest/most awkward visits of the mission. We are teaching a 10-year old boy, whose older brother is a member. He is an awesome kid. He always reads what we leave, and he understands more than honestly any other investigator that we have. We call people like him, escogidos. Anyway, on Friday we left the Law of Chastity pamphlet for him to read before the visit on Saturday. Well, we showed up on Saturday, and started teaching. First off, I asked what he learned from this pamphlet. He said, Heavenly Father wants us to have kids when we are married. And then, with this huge piece of bubblegum that he was chewing, blew a giant bubble that popped all over his face. I couldn't keep myself from laughing. He was so embarrassed that he was trying to talk about anything but the law of chastity. It was hilarious. But we got everything covered, and he is still set to be baptized on the 29th along with Michael.

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. We went to Agapito and Mami´s house in the morning to walk with them to church, and only Agapito was there, and he said that he wasn't going to church and that he was going to leave his wife because of a fight. This was absolutely devastating to us. We have worked so long and so hard with this family that we were devastated at the thought of them separating. We set a visit to have both Agapito and Mami together with us later that night, and then we went to church. All of church we just thought about what we were going to say to try and help them work through their problems. After church we went to their house to do some family counseling. All I could think was, they definitely did not train me how to do this in the MTC!

We started with a prayer and then tried to figure out the problem. Immediately they both just started yelling and saying that the other one was at fault, and yada yada. When we finally got them to a cease fire, we began to have one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Elder Day and I were able to say things, find scriptures, and help them discover that the best thing for them was to be together. But the thing was, it wasn't Elder Day or me. It was us being guided by the Spirit, to say things to help a 75-year-old couple stay together. We have no experience with these kinds of problems. But with the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we were able to help them through this problem. It was amazing to feel the Spirit come into the room and testify of the importance of the family, and that they could make it through this problem.

This whole thing made me think so much about families. Satan is relentlessly attacking the family because it is so important. It is the most important social unit of this life--and the eternities. Satan knows that if he can destroy our families, he can destroy us. The things we focused on in this visit were the atonement and love. We will always have problems. We will always do things wrong, and the people we love will always do things wrong. But we need to forgive them. The Lord said, "I will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." We need to forgive others. It is a commandment. We also need to repent of the things we have done. The atonement is infinite. It is inexpressibly amazing, and if we are willing to do our part, we can be made clean of our sins. Jesus suffered for us because He loves us.

This is another part we discussed. Love. We promised them that if they would express love, in word and deed, they would be able to make it through anything. I know that is true for all of us. We need to show the people that we love that we love them. Tell them we love them, show them we love them. I love you guys. More than anything. I am so grateful that I was raised in the most amazing family in the world. I can't imagine where I would be without a family. I am so grateful that because of the gospel we will be together forever. Geez, I feel like Dr. Phil, but that's what has been on my mind.

I just want you to know that I know that this Church is true. I have no doubt in my mind. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet--and that he was called by God to restore His Church to the earth. I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers. Always. Praying is the way we communicate with our Father in Heaven. I´ve realized how true the quote is that a man stands tallest when he is on his knees. Praying has helped me through all of my challenges of the mission. The Book of Mormon is true. It never ceases to amaze me! The Church is true! Thanks for everything!